Farm Groups Facing Fines

U.s. Inquiry Unearths Labor Violations By Growers, Contractors

March 18, 1994|By ROBERT McCABE Business Writer

After a two-week investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor, some South Florida growers and farm-labor contractors are facing a total of more than $100,000 in fines because of their treatment of agricultural workers.

The impending fines are the result of 42 investigations by the Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor, which looked at major agricultural firms and registered and unregistered farm labor contractors in Martin, St. Lucie and Palm Beach counties.

Jorge Diez de Onate, assistant district director of the Miami office of the Wage and Hour Division, which oversees federal farmworker laws, said the names of firms being fined would not be released for about two weeks.

The certificate of one major contractor has already been revoked for transportation and housing violations, and the results of five investigations are being referred to the U.S. Attorney's Office for possible criminal prosecution, he said.

``We expect to assess in excess of $100,000 in civil money penalties for transportation and housing violations. We found vans transporting up to 15 workers sitting on top of milk containers. We will charge in excess of $15,000 in back wages, mostly due to illegal deductions,'' he said.

The investigations, which focused on problems relating to the transportation, housing and payment of farmworkers, follow the deaths of more than two dozen workers in unsafe vehicles in South Florida during the past three years, said Greg Schell, an attorney with Florida Rural Legal Services. ``It's an enormous problem,'' said Schell, who estimates that about half of the 30,000 Palm Beach County farmworkers who rely on employer-provided transportation travel in vehicles that are unsafe, uninsured or both.

Between 40,000 and 60,000 farmworkers labor in Palm Beach County throughout the year, along with about 200,000 other farmworkers in the rest of the state, he said.

Schell said that growers in the state routinely try to get around federal farmworker laws by hiring contractors who are paid to recruit and transport workers to and from the fields.

``The growers have set up this whole crew-leader system as an insulation against responsibility,'' Schell said.

Peter Mecca, president of Lantana-based Mecca Farms, one of the largest growers in Palm Beach County, said Labor Department officials had interviewed some of the workers in his fields, but he had not heard what the results were. ``I haven't heard a thing yet,'' he said.

Mecca said the responsibility for the safe transportation of workers lies with the contractors his firm hires specifically for that purpose.